Does tolerance increase through migration? A Case study on Pakistani Muslim migrants in Germany
Sajida Fazal (CERES, PhD student)
This paper is going to examine to what extent intra-religious boundaries and differences as perceived in Pakistan transform in the Diaspora. It will explore how far Sunni and Shia relations are altered and which perspectives and constraints are discernible in the new environment. For this purpose the affiliation to the denomination and organisational structure will be examined by asking whether religious rituals and rules are maintained, abandoned, or substituted by others from different sub-denominations by the migrants. In this respect, the transnational networking of migrants will be considered in order to explore the impact of religious authorities in the homeland and in the Diaspora. In the scope of this qualitative research 20 narrative interviews have been conducted in Germany in 2014 with Pakistani Muslim migrants and analysed based on a grounded theory approach. This paper argues that the interactions of diverse Pakistani Muslim migrants contribute to foster tolerance among them in the Diaspora situation.
This paper will be presented in panel Religious Identity and Practice in Migration (27-130 | 215)